


Cold Turkey

by mrs_d



Category: due South
Genre: Backstory, Divorce, F/M, Quitting Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2015-07-01
Packaged: 2018-04-07 04:15:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4248948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_d/pseuds/mrs_d
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s reaching for his Marlboros when it occurs to him that he could just quit.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cold Turkey

**Author's Note:**

> For chasm_side.

Ray awakens suddenly and doesn’t know where he is or why his nose is all stuffed up. Then a car horn blares outside, and he remembers.

New apartment. Empty bed.

He trips over boxes and bags, probably full of crap it would have just been easier to throw away, and stumbles across the living room. He doesn’t feel like digging out the coffee maker, so he runs the tap as hot as he can and drinks lukewarm instant. He’s reaching for his Marlboros when it occurs to him that he could just quit.

After all, Stella quit him.

* * *

He never intended to start. But he killed Stanley not long after the bank, and created Ray, and Ray wore a leather jacket and black boots; Ray worked on cars every chance he got; Ray cut classes on Friday afternoons to go to the pool hall; Ray drank beer on Saturday nights in Paul Wasylenchuk’s basement; and Ray smoked.

When they were fourteen, Pauly stole a pack from his dad, and the whole gang made themselves sick with it all weekend. By the time junior year came around, Ray, with his come-at-me smirk and an ID faker than a three-dollar bill, was buying Marlboros every week for Paul and his friends. Because Ray was indispensable.

And Stella noticed. Wow, did Stella notice.

He was downtown on a Thursday night in May. Finals were coming up, so Ray wasn’t studying. He and Paul and Rob Polenczy were leaning against the brick wall of Rob’s dad’s garage, checking out the rich kid cars in for oil changes, and Stella walked by with a group of girls just like her. She was wearing a long red sundress, and he was just wondering how she’d look with his jacket, black leather instead of white cashmere over all that red, when she noticed him. She did a little double take, then slowed up to let the other girls go ahead of her, and Ray pushed himself off the wall.

“Hey, Stella,” he said through a cloud of smoke.

“Hi, Stanley.”

Paul might have snickered beside him, Ray wasn’t sure. “Call me Ray, Stell. Everybody does now.”

She nodded. Then came the hard part. She was looking at him, and he was glad he had the smoke in his left hand because it gave him something to do. “So,” he began, trying to keep the quiver out.

“So, you want to come over tomorrow?”

Ray nearly choked. “Tomorrow?”

“Yeah.” Damn, that was a nice smile she was giving him, all slow and steady, brightening her whole face.

“What’s tomorrow?” asked Ray, chanting _be cool, be cool, be cool!_ in his head till he was sure he’d start screaming it any second. He took another drag to distract himself, though he was already spinning just from her being so close.

“My parents are out of town,” Stella was saying. “My brother's having some frat buddies over. Want to come?”

Ray blew smoke out his nose as he nodded, noticing the way Stella was noticing. “Okay,” he said, like it was easiest thing to say when the girl you’ve been crushing on for almost four years invites you over when her folks aren’t home.

“Okay,” she repeated. “Around 8?”

Like it was a question. Like she didn’t know he’d be there at 3AM if she’d only ask.

“Around 8,” he agreed, and maybe it was the nicotine making him giddy, but he reached out with his right hand, touching the brooch on her cardigan, his fingers brushing the tips of her hair. “This is, this is nice, I like this,” he babbled.

She didn’t seem to mind. Or maybe she knew he wasn’t just talking about the brooch. She gave him a shy little smile. “See you tomorrow. Ray.”

“Yeah.” Again, so easy.

He watched her walk away until he felt the heat of his cigarette too close to his fingers. He dropped it and stubbed it out under his boot.

“Nice view of the Gold Coast there, Kowalski,” said Rob, leaning over and knocking shoulders with Ray.

“I’ll say,” echoed Paul. “Didn’t know you had such expensive taste.”

Ray had forgotten there was anyone in the world except him and Stella. He shook himself and put another cigarette between his lips.

“Can it, Wasylenchuk,” he muttered as he struck another match.

Ray was hooked.

* * *

Ray sips his terrible coffee and thinks about going cold turkey.

Stella always let him come back. Even if she said it was over. But this was the first time she had official-looking papers in her hand when she said it. The first time she made him take everything. The first time he signed a lease without her.

He’ll give it a week, he decides, and tucks the pack into one of his many empty drawers.


End file.
